After orchestrating Barack Obama’s victorious Presidential campaign, David Plouffe took his share of the credit, paused to write a book about the 2008 campaign, and continued his work for a D.C. based media firm.
But an Obama administration stung by a series of electoral losses has put out the call for Plouffe to come back on board to a more active role, placing him in charge of stemming the red tide of GOP victories. The Democrats are pinning their hopes on a political veteran whose role isn’t clearly defined; in many respects he is the counterpart to Republican political advisor Karl Rove.
Yet Rove was constantly vilified by the left as a sort of puppetmaster. Obviously he was fairly successful for a time as President Bush garnered enough electoral votes to win in 2000 and was re-elected with a clear majority.
But the Rove magic wore off in 2006 and 2008 because the message being portrayed didn’t square with actions of the Republican Congress or the Bush White House, and John McCain opted to use a different set of advisors.
According to an article in today’s Washington Post by Chris Cillizza, Plouffe’s view on the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was that, “everyone would agree that the definition of Brown should have happened a lot sooner and a lot more clearly.” In other words, they didn’t lie, obfuscate, and smear Scott Brown enough to assure Martha Coakley could win despite her terrible campaign.
The disadvantage Plouffe has, of course, is that millions of those who voted for Obama expecting “hope” or “change” have been smacked in the face by the terrible recession and the handling of health care reform which goes farther than a majority of Americans wish to see. It will also be more difficult to have a compliant media covering every single Congressional race rather than focusing on one overriding contest – while Plouffe can do his best to control the overall message, each election can turn on local issues.
But it’s obvious that the selection of Plouffe to help run the Democrats’ campaign is their answer to the Republicans’ nationalizing a local election, as they did with Scott Brown in Massachusetts. And since the new Obama agenda seems to be one of placing him back in campaign mode (as opposed to a leadership role) it’s apparent the Plouffe influence has already been placed into play.